In deputy Labour leader Cllr Amanda Evans column in Brighton & Hove News, she discusses the polarisation surrounding the subject of asylum-seekers in recent years.

“Much has been written both nationally and locally about the terrifying situation unfolding in Afghanistan and what responsibility the UK should take for the chaotic scenes..

The whole subject of asylum-seekers has become so polarised nationally in recent years.. that it makes me weep for what felt like a more tolerant past and appreciate the continued kindness of people in Brighton and Hove.

In the 1970s, at my inner London primary school, I counted among my friends a new girl who horrified the class with stories of her last months in Idi Amin’s Uganda.

When I took these tales home, my Auntie Eve told me of her arrival as a small child decades earlier, on the Kindertransport.

Later, I remember headlines about the “Vietnamese Boat People” who made the perilous journey across the seas, risking their all in search of safety..

With the current situation at least partly due to their disgraceful mishandling of a situation far away, the government must do more to support local authorities in helping settle the resulting refugees in our cities.

Brighton and Hove has an honourable record as a City of Sanctuary – and long may that continue.”

To read councillor Evan’s full article, click here.